For individuals who enjoy smoking cigarettes and small cigars also known as cigarillos, it is often difficult to dispose of such objects quickly and without leaving untidy, burning or smelly butts within sight, if smoking for some reason must be interrupted. People have for a long time been using ashtrays and other receptacles in which to "stub" a cigarette butt. Ashtrays with hinged covers have been used to seal off the interior of such an ashtray in order to prevent the smoke from the still smoking butt to enter the outside air. Often times a smoldering cigarette butt ignites other already spent butts contained in the ashtray and starts a small fire therein.
Other inventors have sought to devise ashtrays with means for snuffing butts.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,027 by R. Patterson issued Oct. 8, 1974 entitled Combination Cigarette Extinguisher and Ashtray, discloses a combination cigarette extinguisher and ashtray with a receiver for butts which is rotatable and removable. U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,496 by C. Agee, issued Jan. 24, l950, entitled Ashtray with Snuffer discloses snuffers where levers operating in slots in the receivers for the butts serve to dislodge the butts and to drop them into the ashtray. U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,193 by J. Lehman, issued Oct. 25, 1977 and entitled Cigarette Snuffing Attachment for Ashtray discloses a cigarette snuffing apparatus with clamping arrangement for attachment to an existing ashtray. U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,277 by D. Moffa, issued Oct. 3, 1972 and entitled Cigarette Extinguisher discloses a rotatable carrier for cigarette butts containing extinguishing chambers for disposal of a lighted cigarette.
For individuals who enjoy smoking cigarettes and the like it is often times desirable to be able to quickly extinguish a cigarette without mutilating it and then again, perhaps a short time later, retrieve the partly smoked cigarette and relight it for continued smoking pleasure.
It is therefore the major object of the present invention to provide apparatus that affords the combined conveniences of quickly disposing a lighted cigarette or the like without mutilating it, and, combined therewith, or stored therewith, means for relighting the cigarette.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for disposing of a lighted cigarette without mutilating it combined with means for retrieving and relighting the partly smoked cigarette and such that said apparatus is suitable for mass production and is of aesthetically pleasing appearance and that may be conveniently installed in places where a smoking person may make use thereof.
Other objects of the invention will become clear in the course of the following description.